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Sunday, March 25, 2018

Is China Preparing For War?

China is in the midst of an ambitious military modernisation programme overseen by President Xi Jinping with a heavy focus on its air force and navy, from building stealth fighters to adding aircraft carriers.

China insists it has no hostile intent, but its sabre-rattling in the busy South China Sea waterway, and around Taiwan, has touched a nerve in the region and in Washington.China's air force has held another round of drills in the disputed South China Sea and the Western Pacific after passing though Japan's southern islands, the air force said on Sunday, calling such exercises the best preparation for war.In a "freedom of navigation" operation on Friday, a U.S. Navy destroyer came within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island China has built in the South China Sea, provoking condemnation from China, which claims most of the strategic waterway.Flying across the Miyako Strait, which also sits to the northeast of the self-ruled island of Taiwan that China claims as its own.

The more exercises China practices far from its shores the better it will be positioned as "an important force for managing and controlling crises, containing war and winning battles".